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Data collected by automatic license plate readers Dallas police intend to purchase would not be available to third parties, and access would be limited even among officers, Police Chief David Brown told a City Council committee Monday. He also said the data would be purged from the system after three months, which is on the low end of the three- to six-month estimate he told the council previously.

The briefing of the council’s Public Safety Committee sought to assure them that the vast amount of data collected would not create serious privacy concerns. These camera systems mounted on police cars and in fixed locations photograph passing license plates, render the image into a searchable form and cross reference it with vehicles reported stolen or associated with a crime or wanted criminal.

The City Council already approved a contract in January for the 28 automatic license plate readers, but officials asked the chief to brief the Public Safety Committee on details about how he would handle privacy concerns.

These are in use nationwide and often bring up privacy fears. In some cases, the data stored by departments could allow police to track a person’s movements if they are photographed enough times by the cameras.

Council member Angela Hunt, who is not on this committee, said during a previous briefing that she was worried about retention times for the data. She recommended that data collected by the cameras be deleted almost immediately if there was no hit.

Few other council members publicly shared those concerns.

Council member Vonciel Jones Hill said Monday she was sensitive to people with privacy concerns but thought the department should retain the location data for even longer than three months.

“I personally think that’s too short,” she said, arguing that six months is more appropriate.

Hill did however defer to the chief’s expertise. Brown said the old data wouldn’t prove useful in most cases.

Brown did say there were some circumstances – such as a serial killer on the loose for a long period – in which a longer retention period would be critical.

“I would want to take the liberty to extend that time at that point,” he said. “And I think that’s in my prevue.”

Brown also told the committee that no outside parties would have access to the data. In other cities, similar data has been available for sale or even free through open records requests.

The chief said the data would be used only with probably cause. He said about 25 members of the department’s Fusion Center would be allowed access the database. Each database inquiry would be time stamped and identify the user, which gives supervisors the ability to audit the system’s usage.

“The same thing happens with all of our queries into our database systems,” Brown said. “It’s a check and balance to make sure the system in not being used for the wrong reason.”

In response to a question from council member Delia Jasso, Brown said the department’s technology command staff will conduct the audits to ensure the system is used properly.

“And who’s auditing them?” Jasso asked.

“I am,” Brown responded.

The use of the license plate readers is expected to start this spring.